Looking Up: Summer nights start late, but worth the wait

Peter BeckerMore Content Now

Friday

Jun 21, 2019 at 10:38 AMJun 21, 2019 at 10:38 AM

The arrival of summer solstice heralds the spectacular night skies of the Northern Hemisphere summer, when the Milky Way is at its brightest and warmer nights bring more and more people venturing out to take a look.The only drawback is the lateness of the hour to await true night, when the last vestige of twilight has faded and the sky is as dark as it can get (given the amount of light pollution you may have to endure). How late you must stay up of course depends on how close you live to the arctic where at this time of year the Sun never sets.From where I write this, at approximately 41 degrees 30 minutes north of the equator (in northeastern Pennsylvania), this time off year, true night doesn’t begin till about 10:45 p.m. (the end of "astronomical twilight." Morning twilight begins at about 3:20 a.m., when the northeastern horizon will start to brighten, promising another sunrise. Night then lasts only about four and a quarter hours, when most of us are fast asleep! May I suggest, if you can stay up, the starry summer night is well worth a look.Fortunately at around 9:15 p.m., the brighter stars are starting to come out, as anyone waiting for fireworks around the 4th of July can attest.Which star will you see first?It will likely be Arcturus, a beautiful orange-amber colored star, high up in the south as twilight deepens. The star is magnitude -0.04 and is 34 light years away.Almost as bright is the wonderful blue-white star, Vega, visible high in the east on late June and early July evenings. Vega glows at magnitude +0.03 and is 25 light years distant.Topping both stars ion brightness, however, is the planet Jupiter. Currently gleaming at magnitude -2.6, Jupiter outshines any star in the nighttime sky (barring the unexpected nova or supernova). Look the southeastern sky during late twilight. Due its low altitude, Jupiter won’t be as easy to see when it is very low, and twilight is bright. The planet climbs highest in the southern sky at around 1:00 a.m. daylight savings time. The bright orange-red star Antares shines to the lower right. Antares is much fainter at magnitude +1.0 but still among the brightest stars of the night.As evening twilight deepens in the east, you will soon see two more bright stars, less bright than Vega but making a large triangle common known as the "Summer Triangle." To the lower right is Altair, magnitude +0.77 and to the right and not as low is Deneb, +1.25.Last quarter Moon is on June 25. Evening skies will be moonlight-free, with the Moon rising later and later each night leading to New Moon on July 2.To find the times of sunset and sunrise, and the end and beginning of twilight for a given date and location, a good website to visit is www.timeanddate.com.Keep looking up!Peter Becker is Managing Editor at The News Eagle in Hawley, PA. Notes are welcome at news@neagle.com. Please mention in what newspaper or web site you read this column.

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